Doctors prepare an indefinite strike from October in Catalonia too

The decision still has to be ratified by the executive bodies of the six organisations that make up the committee, and the start date and final format of the stoppages have yet to be specified. The unions will meet again next week to finalise the timetable. Therefore, there is still no formal call with dates or minimum services.

The escalation comes just one day after the Council of Ministers approved the draft Framework Statute Act on its second reading and sent it to Parliament. The legislation has not yet been definitively approved: it must now pass through the parliamentary process before replacing the statute in force since 2003.

The text sets a maximum working week of 45 hours, compared with the current limit of 48, and reduces on-site shifts to a maximum of 17 hours. It also requires health services that exceed the equivalent of a 35-hour standard working week to move progressively towards that limit, and introduces changes to temporary employment, work-life balance and professional classification.

The doctors-only unions believe these changes do not resolve the heart of the dispute. They are calling for their own Medical and Specialist Statute, a specific forum in which to negotiate their working conditions, a 35-hour standard working week, recognition of excess working time and its inclusion in pension calculations, and a differentiated professional classification reflecting training and responsibility.

In Catalonia, the dispute also has a second aspect. For months, Metges de Catalunya has maintained a separate standoff with the Department of Health to secure a specific negotiating table or agreement for medical specialists in the Catalan health system. By June, the union had called twelve strike days since October 2025 in hospitals and primary care.

Pressure did not disappear during the summer. At the beginning of August, the ‘Not One Minute More’ campaign, under which doctors voluntarily decline to carry out extra work outside their compulsory hours, included 258 departments at 45 public and publicly funded hospitals and 53 primary-care teams and units. Centres that have joined include Bellvitge, Vall d’Hebron, Sant Pau, Hospital del Mar, Clínic, Germans Trias i Pujol and Parc Taulí.

For patients, for the time being, no appointment changes as a result of this Wednesday’s announcement. The specific impact will only be known once the call is formalised and the Generalitat sets the minimum services. In previous strike days, the stoppages have mainly affected scheduled, non-urgent activity, while emergency care and services considered essential have been maintained.

The Ministry of Health argues that the draft improves the working conditions of all professionals in the National Health System and maintains that sending it to Congress does not rule out further changes. The medical unions, on the other hand, consider the current dialogue exhausted and have decided to increase the pressure. Next week will be crucial: they will have to ratify the strike, specify its October start and define how it will be applied in each autonomous community, including Catalonia.